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In May, 61 cloistered nuns from six monasteries in Santiago, Chile, spent time with inmates at a local women's prison and attended Mass with them, as part of this Year of Mercy. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, who celebrated the Mass, shared with Catholic News Agency that the nuns requested the joint visit, “so the sisters who contemplate the face of God every day in prayer could contemplate him in the face of people who are suffering, going through a hard time in their lives.”

The nuns, who lead a traditional enclosed monastic life, sang a Chilean song and four even danced after they all celebrated Mass. "[It was] a grace to share with them, to really feel like a sister with them, to feel their sorrow, their joy and to become one with them,” said Sister Maria Rosa of the Discalced Carmelites from the San José monastery.

Catholics in Michigan are coordinating “Mass Mobs” to fill the pews at often-empty churches and "breathe new life into the community.”

The most recent target, St. Florian Catholic Church in Detroit, has seating for 1,500 people, but the church reports that only about 200 people currently gather there each Sunday.

“Mass Mob” organizers spread the word about this specific parish on Facebook, and last Sunday’s noon mass attracted 2,000 people, according to NPR, and the collection total neared $19,000—10 times more than an average Sunday.

One of the organizers of the Detroit Mass Mob, Thom Mann, said he got the idea from a similar movement that popped up in New York earlier this year.

There is a renewed energy in these churches, according to Mann. "To be in attendance when it's full, as opposed to sparse—there's an electricity that's amazing," he said.

THIS SUNDAY celebrates those called to serve the gospel in different parts of the world.

On the third Sunday of October we observe World Mission Sunday, an occasion to and renew our commitment to missions and missonaries around the world.

Pope Francis says of this October 20th event: "I would like to encourage everyone to be a bearer of the good news of Christ and I am grateful especially to missionaries . . . men and women religious and lay faithful - more and more numerous—who by accepting the Lord's call, leave their homeland to serve the Gospel in different lands and cultures. But I would also like to emphasize that these same young Churches are engaging generously in sending missionaries to the Churches that are in difficulty—not infrequently Churches of ancient Christian tradition—and thus bring the freshness and enthusiasm with which they live the faith, a faith that renews life and gives hope." Read Pope Francis' full message here.

Elated or Frustrated?

"Religious life ought to promote growth in the Church by way of attraction. The Church must be attractive. Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world.” -- Pope Francis